I close my eyes, cover my ears, and laugh
by HGRebels
Summary: After Annie sees her fellow District 4, Jacobs, head getting sliced off by another tribute, she goes mad. This fanfic is about her time in the Hunger Games. Its not as good at my last one and not as long.


I can feel his deep, sea green eyes peircing through me like daggers. Hes not happy. But why should he be? Today is the day I have to fight to the death for my survival and hes been nothing but nice to me, whilst Ive been nothing but horrible. I feel as though I owe Finnick Odair for what he did for me five years ago. My older brother, Alexander, got reaped for the 65th Hunger Games. Everything went quiet until Finnick lunged forward, volunteering to take his place. Alexander and Finnick are the best of friends, always have been, always will. But I can never repay Finnick for volunteering for my brother. For giving me the gift of keeping his life. So I guess ive been trying to distance myself from Finnick Odair, but its hard to stay away from my mentor. He leads me to my glass tube, still staring at me, but I dont make eye contact with him. After a while he tilts my head up, forcing me to look in to his incredible eyes. He opens his mouth to say something but no words come out. He shakes his head and walks away from me, well away. A voice from above booms through the room, "tributes, take to your tubes... and good luck" it says. I step in to my glass tube and quickly glance back at Finnick, still staring at me. The tube closes. Finnick moves his mouth and shouts "I'll do everything I can to keep you alive Annie!". "Why?" I scream back. Then Finnick says something that will be going through my head the whole duration of the games. "Because... Because I love you!"

My glass tube moves up into the unknown. '59...58...57' the countdown begins. I try not to move on my plate. If I step off the plate, I get blown to peices. Simple as. I look around, trying to get the grip of my surroundings, but my mind keeps drifting back to what Finnick Odair just told me. The guys thats attempted to look after me my whole life, acted like a brother to me, has just told me he loves me. I push it to the back of my mind and glance across the distance, spotting the Cornucopia and the essentials surrounding it. '47...46...45' I have no talent. I cant cook, clean, build, mend but I am pretty excellent with my feet. I am positive I can make it to the Cornucopia before the other tributes and collect a knife or a spear without getting brutally beaten or stabbed. '32...31...30' Then I see the lakes. Lots and lots of lakes. My district's speciality is Fishing and at home, theres nothing but water and grass. Ive spent most of my life learning to make fishing hooks and to swim. This is my advantange. I can use this. '28...27...26' Something bright catches my eye and I see the girl next to me's pin shine in the sun. The pin begins to fall of the girls jacket in what seems like slow motion and lands on the grass infront of her. Before she even has time to scream, her plate blows up like a bomb and bits of her frail body fly everywhere. '13...12...11' The image of the girl erupting replays over and over in my head. I have to focus. The countdown is nearly over and I need to be ready to run. '5...4..3' I get in to position and take deep breaths. This is it. The horn blows and everybody runs. Running for their lives or running for their victims. One by one the weak around me fall to the floor covered in blood and sweat. The career tributes have this game covered. Theres not a chance in hell I can win.

Its been five days. Five long, agonising days ive been stuck in this hell hole without food, water or even a warm dry place to sleep. Each night Ive looked up in to the sky and gave myself a moment to listen to the music and mourn the dead tributes, the tributes who were just like me. I havent seen Jacobs, my fellow district 4 tribute, face in the sky yet. If I dont win, I hope he will. Usually, Districts 1, 2 and 4 team up and become the career tributes as they tend to be the strongest and most capable. But me and Jacobs refused to be involved. The career tributes are not brave, strong fighters to us. Theyre brutal, savage killers. Thats something we dont want to be seen as. Me and Jacobs have been somewhat friends since Finnick volunteered for Alexander. He saw me cry when my brother got chosen and comforted me until the whole reaping was over. I guess in a way Alexander being reaped was a good thing, I gained a friend. I hear a manly scream behind me and recognise it instantly. I know this voice. This voice belongs to Jacobs. I run through the grass and approach where the sound is coming from. I see Jacobs head roll across the green grass and his body fall to the ground. The boy from 5 had just sliced off my friends head. The cannon fires. Dead.

My body shakes as I reach round to the backpack I grabbed from the Cornucopia and take out my metal mallet. Its heavy but I walk up to the boy from 5, hes not facing me and obviousaly hasnt seen me from the darkness. I tap him on the shoulder and as he turns round I raise my mallet, ready to swing. He faces me and smirks, clasping his hand over his sword. "Why hello there. Youre a pretty little thing arnt you" he says, still smiling at me. "Its nice to know one of us is" I snap back. At that moment, I slam the mallet in to his smirking face and beat him to death. I never wanted to kill in these games but he deserved it. He killed my one and only friend. His cannon fires. I take his sword, its not like he will need it again. The music starts to play and I look up in to the stars. District 8's girl, 9's girl, 5's boy and then finally, Jacobs. I collapse to the floor, tears streaming down my face. Its all become real now. Ive just killed somones son, brother, nephew, grandson, friend. They will never get him back, just like Jacobs' family will never get him back. I start to think about my family and most of all Finnick. A camera catches my eye, its zooming in on my face. I stare straight in to it and whisper something. _"I love you too"_ I say.

Theres not many of us left. Around 12 cannons have gone off in the last couple of weeks so that leaves about 6 of us. Another cannon goes off. 5. I close my eyes, cover my ears and start to laugh, uncontrollably. Somethings happening to me and I dont like it. Ive not had any water in the past few days as Ive been trying to avoid any contanct with the other tributes. If it comes down to me and anyother, I would have no strength to fight back. I hear something beeping above me but I tell myself its just my mind playing tricks. The beeping gets stronger and I scream as something lands on my lap. I close my eyes, cover by ears and laugh again. I realise that what just landed on my lap is a gift from a sponser. Ive not had a sponsers gift yet. I assumed nobody likes me. I open it up to see a flask. I quickly pull off the cap and gulp down the contents, not caring whats in it. Thankfully its only water. "Thank you!" I scream, forgetting where I am and thats theres killers on the loose, trying to hunt down each tribute and claim victor. A rumble comes from below. At first I thought it was just my stomach but I soon realise its not. I jump up and hide behind the nearest tree, closing my eyes, covering my ears, laughing. The floor begins to split open and I run for my life, skipping over any cracks on the floor. I hear a gush of water. I take deap breath then hold it, bracing myself for whats about to hit. Were in the middle of an earthquake and that earthquake just broke the damb. You either came in a swimmer, or you died drowning.

I swim as fast as I can through the gushing waves flying over the top of me, pulling me under. I see tributes fighting for their lives, trying to hold on to a tree or even hold on to eachother. Im the only tribute left with experience in swimming. I told you I could use this to my advantage. As quickly as it came, the water begins to absorb in to the ground and I can finally breathe again. Cannon by cannon goes off. 1...2...3. Bodies of the dead tributes lay spread across the surface. The final cannon goes off as I close my eyes, cover my ears and laugh. A voice comes throught the speakers. "Ladies and gentleman, I am pleased to announce the victor of the 70th Hunger Games - Annie Cresta! I give you, the tribute of District 4!"

I run up to my Alexander and my parents, holding them close, not letting go. I catch Finnick Odairs gaze and my stomach gets butterflies. I pull away from Alexander and my parents and slowly, but gracefully walk up to Finnick. "Congratulations Cresta" he says and I nod my head and turn to walk away. "Annie" he stutters. "Yes?" I reply. "Did you mean it..." "Mean what?" "What you whispered in to the cameras" I look at his face, taking in his mesmorizing eyes and tanned skin, and kiss him gently on the lips. "Does that answer your question?" I say.


End file.
